As a business owner an ERP system will take your business to the next level. It will take all your current business flows and transforms them into a single process. Majority of ERP systems have already been pre-developed to fit the standard business prototype but can be modified to better fit your business needs. Once you have the ERP system in place, you will have access to all the right tools to remain highly competitive in the marketplace and become more efficient. Implementing an ERP system for your business can be highly profitable in the long run and can assist your company in becoming more scalable for future growth. Here are three reasons why you should implement an ERP system:

Reason One: Streamlined Processes

Once your ERP system has been implemented, all of your department’s processes streamlined. These faster and simpler working methods will increase employee efficient and in return, create a stronger business model. Also, room for human error decreases significantly when an ERP system is in place. As multiple departments, work as one, the business can now develop and grow into something bigger than it was before.

Reason Two: Customer Service

Every business has a consumer base; whether you’re a B2B or a B2C, the customer experience is everything. Customers need to have a positive interaction with your company every single time. An ERP system will increase the possibilities to provide memorable customer experiences using your new streamlined processes, therefore increasing customer satisfaction.

Reason Three: Analytics

ERP systems collect data and provide analytics so that, can make profitable decisions. ERP systems not only allows all your departments to work using one integrated system but also requires all employees to input all the data into one integrated system. All this collected data can then be extracted and later analyzed to improve business processes, product development, marketing campaigns, becoming more cost efficient and so much more.

To stay competitive in the marketplace its recommended for your business to have an ERP system in place. If you have any questions about ERP systems and how it would make your current business model better email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we’ll be happy to assist you. If you would like to try out our ERP system, you can download our demos here: www.websan.com/demo

Part of what makes ERP software so popular within various industries is its ability to adapt alongside growing companies. Gone are the days where organizations were required to spend tens of thousands of dollars for system update fees. Instead, companies now have the freedom to grow freely, and no longer need to be tied down by software limitations. In this post, we discuss the three features of scalability in ERP software and how this benefits businesses:

Enhance customer account management:

As your company grows, so too will your list of clients and customers. Your systems must be able to handle this increase in customer information, ensuring you have the necessary space to add additional data entries and ensure that your systems continue to run smoothly under heavy workloads and across multiple applications within your system.

Cross-platform capabilities:

Thanks to the proliferation of Cloud technologies, users are now able to access their applications from any mobile device (so long as they have internet access). ERP allows for the ability to switch between multiple platforms without hindering the functionality nor the user environment

Increased security measures:

As the amount of data stored in your systems continues to grow, so too does the need for heightened security measures. Thankfully, with ERP systems, security is scalable as well. Companies with multiple users are each able to set up their own authorizations, permissions, and access control to various features within the system, protecting their work and preventing others to make any changes as well.

Click here to find a solution that can grow alongside your company. You can also feel free to contact us for any other additional questions and/or inquiries.

According to the latest statistics from RightScale 2017 State of the Cloud Report, current cloud adoption among companies is 95%. This could mean that we’re not too far away from having 100% of companies who will use the cloud for their daily tasks. There is no better time than now to think about moving your ERP system to the cloud. Here are 3 reasons why you will benefit from it.

Lower Costs

The most common and the most attractive benefit is, of course, price. A cloud-based ERP system offers lower upfront and operating costs - you wouldn’t need to spend a huge amount of money on hardware, purchasing the ERP solution itself and hiring staff to maintain it. A cloud-based ERP system requires only flat-rate monthly fees, which will make your life much easier and become a less costly option for your business.

Quicker Access to Information

With a cloud-based ERP system, you don’t need to spend much time to perform your daily business operations. Once you have an Internet connection, you can access to your ERP system anywhere you want. It makes much easier to spend time outside the office and still stay on top of everything that happens with your business.

Enhanced Security

When cloud technologies were first starting to be used by companies, people had some concerns about its security. However, ERP cloud vendors proved that they can provide a more secured environment in comparison with on-premise ERP systems. The system was set up in this way so every user has its own level of accessibility. This means, that you don’t need to worry about any attempts to steal your company’s information.

To make sure that your transition to the cloud will run smoothly, make sure to choose a reliable partner. WebSan is a multi-award winning company with more than 15 years of experience. Click here to learn more about why WebSan should be your next Microsoft Dynamics cloud hosting provider.

As we’ve mentioned in a previous blog post, an ERP system is not a quick fix to all of your company’s problems. At times, it may even be difficult to measure whether your company is gaining any benefits from implementing your ERP software. If you’re doubting the effectiveness of the software, I suggest reviewing the following areas of your business first:

Tracking Customer Service Experiences: In today’s market, providing outstanding customer service can be the determining factor on whether a customer will choose to do business with you or a competitor. An ERP software puts you in control of the consumer buying journey, enabling you to track online customer experiences, line item fill rates and ensure delivery times to your customers. You’ll be able to compare these measures with previous results to identify trends and determine if the ERP software is making a difference in your company.

Measuring Profit Margins: If you’ve ever taken a business course, then you’ve probably heard of the ’80 – 20’ rule, which states that 80% of a company’s revenue is typically generated by 20% of its total customers. An ERP software can influence your overall strategy, allowing you to concentrate your sales efforts and target your more profitable customers. Once again, the results can be measured and compared with historical data.

Impacts of Inventory Management: One of the key features of an ERP software is its ability to manage and track inventory. Not only does this allow your company to better meet consumer and production demands, but also ensures your company will not be spending more on excess stock and tying up additional capital and resources.

If you’re still wondering if your ERP system is working out for you, why not try and take a free ERP assessment? Click here for more information.

As a small business owner, you always think about new solutions to increase revenues and boost your company’s growth. ERP software is definitely one of those things that can help improve your business’ efficiency but, as everything in life, it can have some pitfalls. What are the pros and cons of ERP for small businesses? We examine them below:

ERP Pros

Increased productivity - By storing all the data in one place, it makes it much easier and faster for your employees to get the necessary information and focus on working towards the business’ goals for success rather than spending time contacting other employees from different departments.

Improved collaboration – A robustERP system will help improve collaboration between teams by providing easy access to data to help make decisions quicker.

Lower operating costs - With one ERP system, you don’t need to spend money on separate software for each department.

Generate business insights – An ERP software performs analysis on different processes, so it makes the process of a decision-making smoother and more comfortable with accurate data.

High price - It’s no surprise that ERP implementation and its further use are followed by significant expenses. But the modern market of ERP software can provide you different price options for any budget. As an example, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales, starts from only $48.60 per user/month.

Staff training - Usually, it takes a significant amount of time and effort for employees to learn new software. But thanks to WebSan University, you can make this process faster and more efficient.

With the help of Microsoft Dynamics, thousands of companies have successfully integrated ERP software into their companies, which has helped them to reduce their operational costs, minimize their capital investments among other benefits. However, the system is not infallible. Part of the reason we here at WebSan offer support services as well as online training is because we recognize that ERP software is still a complex system and difficult to figure out on your own. Although self-learning is not discouraged, many companies dive head-first into a new ERP software without taking important considerations into account which can only create future headaches. Below, we outline 3 common mistakes companies make with their ERP software implementation and offer suggestions on how to best avoid them:

1. Poor planning:

At this point, you’ve most likely heard that thousands of companies are using ERP software to help streamline their business operations as well as how it has helped companies expand their operations. At this point, companies may decide to jump on the bandwagon, purchase an ERP system and expect their company to instantly become more productive. This however, is never the case. Research is imperative to ensure that the product will suit the needs of your business. Lack of planning and research on what ERP software is best for your company will at best result in failing to utilize the software to its fullest potential, and at worst be a huge waste of time and money. Be sure to research the product beforehand, and if necessary seek third party help to better understand how to successfully implement ERP into your company.

2. Insufficient company engagement:

As mentioned, ERP software can be complicated and comes with a learning curve. Many companies are still hesitant to either update their current systems or use any ERP software at all. Some companies become frustrated and turned off by this, as they may not be seeing results fast enough or may perceive this learning period as a detriment towards overall company productivity. ERP software is not a magical device designed to solve all problems, and requires time and patience to master. Without taking the time and patience to learn how to use it, the software quickly becomes useless and companies may as well go back to using Excel.

3. Losing sight of initial business needs:

There are various Microsoft Dynamics products that were specifically designed to help with certain tasks within a company. During the implementation process, it becomes easy for companies to lose track of what the initial goal or benefit that the software was intended to meet. Consequently, it becomes difficult to recognize whether the software had successfully fulfilled its intended purpose and with benefits ultimately going unnoticed. To avoid this, always keep your business’ goal in mind or reach out to your ERP partner to ask whether you’re maximizing the use of your software.

ERP software implementation can be intimidating, which is why we at WebSan are always willing to offer our services and help you answer any questions that you may have. Contact us with any questions that you may have and we’ll be happy to have someone chat with you whether over the phone or through email.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software offers the benefits of streamlined and integrated business processes, lower cost of operation, improved reporting capabilities, data security and increased productivity. With multiple benefits brought about by an efficient ERP system, the process of selecting the right system that can help support your organization’s needs can at times be daunting.

To help increase the odds of choosing the right ERP software, below is an ERP selection tip sheet that outlines key steps for selecting the right ERP software.

1. Know and prioritize your software requirements

Start by identifying what challenges you want to solve and what your current system is unable to do for you. It’s best to divide the list into features that are must-haves and nice-to-haves. The more specific you can be about your software requirements, the better. As an article from Software Advice notes: “by knowing what you need, you’ll be in a better position to control the selection process, rather than let software vendors dictate your needs.”

2. Carefully evaluate your options before deciding on an ERP system

It’s important to consult management and key stakeholders and ask them for their input in the evaluation phase. It’s also worth considering how the systems you’ve shortlisted affect integration with your existing office systems, the ERP system’s reporting capabilities and metrics.

3. Build a short list of software vendors

Determine which vendors best serve your industry, requirements and budget. Remember that it’s best to list five or fewer vendors and products to evaluate.

4. Closely evaluate live software demos

Start by preparing brief demo scripts that detail specific workflows that you want to evaluate in the demo. After each demo, meet with your team to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the demo and compare notes.

5. Compare prices

Once you’ve narrowed down your list of vendors, you can now ask the vendors for a detailed price quote and compare in terms of what vendors will offer with support, training, third-party hardware and pricing models.

6. Get references from vendors

Ask the vendor you’ve chosen for a reference that shares a similar business need and size. When talking to the reference, don’t hesitate to ask about challenges that they faced with the system and how the vendor was able to address issues.

7. Decide

Given all of the information that you’ve gathered from the process, decide if the vendor and ERP system is the right fit for your organization. Ensure that all the agreements and requirements that must be fulfilled are noted in writing from the vendor.

Businesses today continue to rapidly change in their needs, particularly, for what an Enterprise Resource Software (ERP) can do to help support their operations and finances. Postmodern ERP, as defined by Gartner is a technology strategy that links and integrates administrative and operational business capabilities with the benefits of vendor-delivered integration to promote flexibility and agility.

Software Advice, an advisory firm that helps buyers research and choose ERP software, conducted research and sought expert advice to look into the concept of Postmodern ERP and how it affects businesses, with findings compiled in this article.

A comprehensive postmodern ERP strategy aims to use the best applications possible in each business area while still ensuring that the different areas adequately integrate with each other when necessary.

The study is quick to note that “a postmodern ERP system will likely be comprised of applications from two or more vendors, and may include multiple deployment models.” This strategy can benefit businesses by ensuring your company is using the applications which are best suited for each job function. Moreover, should specific applications need to be changed, there would be no need to customize or upgrade the whole system.

Although the study suggests that the postmodern strategy would be best suited to growing midsize to large firms, organizations “should opt for a strategy that will provide them with long-term agility over short-term operational efficiency.”

WebSan Solutions can help your organization find the right ERP solution that would fit your business needs. Download our ERP whitepaper to learn more.

When selecting a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, one of the first considerations to make is whether to go hosted (on the cloud) or on-premise. Although both types have their advantages and disadvantages, it’s worth taking a closer look and offering points of consideration to make the software selection process less daunting. Software Advice, an advisory firm that helps buyers select ERP software, conducted research to create a comprehensive guide to help buyers determine the best type of software needed for their organization, with findings compiled in this article.

The biggest difference between the two types of systems is cloud-based software is hosted on the vendor’s servers and accessed through a Web browser, while on-premise software is installed locally, on a company’s own computers and servers. Although over time, both systems’ cost tend to converge, cloud-based software is priced under a monthly or annual subscription basis, while on-premise software is usually priced under a one-time perpetual license fee.

Some advantages of cloud-based ERP software include its shorter implementation time, great stability with frequent updates from the vendor and no additional hardware investments. On the other hand, some disadvantages of this type of system are its less customizable functionalities and an organization’s possible less peace of mind that comes with data security being in the vendor’s hands.

On the other end of the spectrum, on-premise ERP systems are known to be more customizable and offer greater control over data. However, the implementation process can take longer and organizations have to pay associated hardware and IT costs. Organizations will find that cloud-based ERP systems are more mobile-friendly compared to their on-premise counterpart.

It would be in an organization’s best interest to first assess its needs, budget and top concerns before deciding on the right type of ERP system that will be the right fit.